A Stitch, A Glow, Some Guilt
by BlackRose108
Summary: After the events of "The Deserter", Katara tries to quell Aang's guilt for burning her. KATAANG.


**Just a random little idea I thought of while watching the episode "The Deserter", and I'm sure the randomness shows, since it kind of shifts from one theme to another to another (thusly the title). Enjoy anyway.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. **

A Stitch, A Glow, Some Guilt

Katara had always made it her mission to make sure everyone's clothes were all in line. Aang had only brought along a few spare outfits when he ran away on Appa all those years ago, and was stubborn enough to say that he's rather wear his air nomad clothes before buying new ones.

And Sokka, well Sokka was just always ripping something.

So when Aang was burned by Zhao after escaping the deserter's camp, Katara was sure that she made a mental note to fix up Aang's shirt when they finally did land for camp.

"Aang?' Katara called when they found a secluded spot away from the Fire Nation colonies and Earth Kingdom cities.

"Yeah?" Aang responded. He didn't meet her eyes directly, as he hadn't sense he burned her.

"I need to fix your clothes." She pointed towards the burnt marks and holes created by the fire he had been exposed to.

"Oh," Aang looked down and saw that he was, in fact, a mess. His clothes were threadbare and he desperate needed a bath.

"I know you're probably going to go take a bath, so just leave your clothes and I'll sew them up for you by the time you're done." Katara explained. Busily doing other things while she spoke to Aang. Sokka had long since gone to sleep since he had done the majority of steering and looking for a place to camp while Aang slept and Katara made sure he was alright.

Aang just nodded slowly and began to gather the few things he'd need for his bath.

"You're really quiet…" Katara mentioned before he started to walk away. She was still fixing things up around camp and organizing, but Aang still jumped at her stern tone of voice. "You've barely said anything on the ride home and you're still really not saying anything."

"I'm just tired," Aang lied. He was actually pretty wide awake since he had gotten a lot of sleep on the ride to camp and was hoping the soothing warm waters would help him fall asleep.

"I know you well enough to know that you're lying, Aang." She told him.

"I'll…uh….leave my clothes by the lake." Aang said as he made his way to the nearby fresh water lake, but he didn't realize that when he did get there, Katara was trailing quietly but certainly behind him. "Katara," He sighed. "I can't bathe with you standing right next to me."

She just stood stubbornly and crossed her arms over her chest. Aang knew what she was getting at, but he wasn't sure if he was in the mood to talk about what he knew she wanted to talk about.

Without any more speaking Aang stripped off his shirt and his pants, being mindful to at least keep on his underwear and got into the water. Katara had brought her sewing basket and sat down near the river and quietly mended Aang's clothes.

That was one of the only good things about finding a Fire Nation colony while traveling through the Earth Kingdom, was that Katara was able to stock up on cloths that were dyed in the same colors as Aang's nomad clothes. The yellow, orange, and red died cloths were hard to find anywhere else and since Aang was always ripping or tattering his clothes somehow Katara just stocked up whenever she could. Despite Sokka's constant worry of going into a Fire Nation colony in the first place.

"Is your glider okay?"Katara asked sometime later when the tranquil sound of the water was making her a little drowsy.

"Um, yeah." He answered. Katara not only fixed Aang's clothes, but also the fabric on his glider, which was, of course, harder to find since the fabric for his glider needed to be a lot more durable than for his clothes.

"Good," Katara sat Aang's shirt aside and began to work on his pants, which weren't as badly burnt. And once she was done with that she sat Aang's pants down and just leaned back on her palms and looked at Aang mindlessly floating around in the water. He was long sense clean and Katara knew he was just staying in there until he thought she would leave.

Just she was one step ahead of him and began to take off her outer garments as well before stepping into the lake water in her white underclothes. Aang's eyes widened as she came in and swam a little backwards as she came closer.

"You finished sewing my clothes?" Aang asked wistfully and still moved away from her.

"Yep."

"Okay…." He looked around nervously, dipping under the water up to his nose.

"Aang?" Katara sighed.

"Yes?"

"When are you going to tell me what's wrong?" She asked and grabbed his hand from under the water to stop him gently without using her water bending. Aang closed his eyes slowly and sank further under the water. But Katara pulled his arm up and he came up from the water slowly and effortlessly, wearing a saddened face of guilt and self loathing.

"Aang?" She whispered when Aang grabbed her hands from underneath the water and looked at them intensely.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked her softly and squeezed her hands a little before letting go. Katara laughed softly.

"Oh, is that all?" She said between giggles.

"What do you mean is that all?" Aang said with wide eyes. "Katara, I _burned_ you. I hurt you and you're just laughing about it?"

"Aang it was an accident and I'm healed, so it's alright."

"It doesn't matter. It still happened in the first place." He started to sink under the water again, but Katara grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back up. 'I just don't understand how you can forgive me so easily."

"Because I know it was an _acciden_t….and because that's what friends do."

He finally met her eyes tentatively. Katara smiled at him and pulled him into a hug to relieve any tension between them.

"And besides," She said while she still held him. "I would've never learned I had healing abilities if it wasn't for you."

"That wasn't exactly the way I wanted to help." Aang said in a slightly joking manner. He pulled away from her then. "But how do you do it?"

Katara looked down at the water and moved her hand through it slowly, concentrating deeply on the water until it began to glow in a dim light but was definitely noticeable. Aang's eyes shined in the glow and Katara looked up and saw his grey eyes sparkling with admiration and awe at what she was doing.

"That's amazing," He whispered softly. "I could never do anything like that."

"You're the Avatar, you can do a lot more useful things than make water glow."

"Yeah but you can heal people, I certainly can't do that."

"I think what you do is a little more universally helpful, Aang." Aang smiled and moved towards her, grabbing her shoulders and making sure she was looking at him straight in the eye.

"How about we agree that we're both helpful?"

Katara smiled as well. "Agreed" She looked down at her hands in the water before looking back at Aang. "As long as you let this whole thing about you burning me go."

Aang moved away again, frowning and soon Katara followed suit.

"Aang, please," Katara pleaded. "You have to let this go, it's over and it happened and I'm fine now."

"I can't fire bend, though."

"Yes you can, you'll have to."

"No," He told her in a strained manner and closed his eyes tightly; turning away from her. "I can't, not after this."

"Aang," Katara moved towards him to place a gentle hand on his shoulder but he just moved away from her and continued to keep his distance.

"Every time I try to fire bend now, all I'm going to think about it how I burned you from being too reckless."

"You can't let your Avatar duties suffer because of me, Aang. You know that."

"I'm doing what's best Katara. If I burned you, imagine how many more people I'd put in danger if I lost control again?"

"Aang, please." She hugged him fiercely by his side, not leaving any real room for him to move away. as fierce as her hug was, her voice was still so calm. "Don't put me before your duties." Aang flicked his wrist and air bended Katara away as gently as possible.

"I'm sorry, but I can't stand to hurt you….or anyone else again." He just gave her one last solemn look and made his away to the water's edge.

"Aang," Katara called after him.

"Katara, please." He turned from the edge to look at her. 'This doesn't change anything….I-I just need some time."

Katara sighed and slumped her shoulders, sinking down into the water up to her nose, now.

"Thanks for sewing my clothes." He said before grabbing his clothes and heading back into the forest back to their camp.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Katara made her way back to the camp sometime later after deciding to wash up herself, not surprised to see that now both Aang and Sokka were asleep. Aang found a comfortable spot on Appa's leg and Momo was hanging from its tail on the nearby tree. She smiled at the scene and blindingly made her way over to Aang before she decided to go to sleep herself.

He was sleeping calmly, a look of some kind of peace over his face. She had been gone for at least another half hour before she made it back to camp so it was very plausible that he was able to meditate and come to a level headed reasoning before going to sleep.

It was clear to Katara that the subject was closed. This was just something that Aang would have to solve on his own. In the back of Katara's mind she always questioned why she honestly felt that she could help him out with everything. He wasn't a normal twelve-year-old with typical adolescent problems, he was the Avatar, and no matter how much Katara wanted to kiss his wounds and make it all better, she simply couldn't do it for everything.

Though, for the moment, she sat by Aang as he slept, pulling a light blanket over him when he shivered from the winter chill, hoping that one day he'd be able to use his fire bending to keep himself warm.

**Eh, I don't know about this one. But at least I'm finished with it. **

**Reviews are always welcome. **


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